Jack Kerouac created a long, connected
saga, the Duluoz Saga, written on the hop, instead of afterwards, in a
cork-lined room. He was not recognized
for this achievement while he was alive.
In fact, he was mocked, as King of the Beatniks. In fact, beat writing was looked down on, by
the New York Literary Establishment (NYLE).
In “The Know-Nothing Bohemians,” Norman Podhoretz said beat writing
caused juvenile delinquency. Kerouac
didn’t help his case by appearing drunk in public. His later years were sad.
Hunter S. Thompson invented gonzo
journalism. He was a character in his
own writing. He made fun of
himself. He savaged stuffed shirts and
pompous politicians. But George McGovern
liked him, and so did Jimmy Carter.. He
was astute about Nixon. In Where the Buffalo Roam he had a Doberman
pinscher dog he would sic at a Nixon dummy’s crotch. He also shot a pistol at the mojo wire, an
early fax machine. He took large amounts
of dope.
Kurt Vonnegut was a public
intellectual. He wrote for slick
magazines. Sunday supplements,
even. He was a humorist like Mark Twain
or Will Rogers. Rather than like Lenny
Bruce of Lord Buckley. He came out of
science fiction and had a character, Kilgore Trout, whom he made fun of. Theodore Sturgeon died living in a
refrigerator carton. Vonnegut was
sensitive towards critics who sneered at science fiction. Actually, he was a mainstream writer, but you
have to come from somewhere. You have to
learn your craft somewhere. Charles
Willeford came out of paperback original mysteries and Charles Bukowski came
out of underground poetry journals and alternative street newspapers. They were both mainstream writers.